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He looked at her for a long, steady moment, and then he nodded. “Yeah. So ’ow are we goin’ ter start, then?”
She felt a sudden sting of tears in her eyes and blinked an extra time. “First we think very carefully, and make plans—which we keep to ourselves.”
“O’ course,” he agreed. “We will tell ’im when we know anything, though, won’t we?”
“Yes, the moment we are sure it makes sense,” she agreed. “The important thing is that we tell each other, just to keep safe. You must promise me?”
He hesitated.
“Scuff! If you don’t tell me where you are going to be, I will be so worried about you I won’t be able to think straight myself. If I didn’t tell you, wouldn’t you worry?”
“ ’Course I would! You—” Then he saw he was cornered. “Yeah … that’s fair … I s’pose.”
She smiled and held out her hand.
Soberly he took it and they shook on the deal.
She could remember most of the evidence in the trial, and checking on that was a good way to start. She wrote everything down, trusting that Scuff would be able to read her writing. She had long practiced making it clearer than character and nature had intended. A mistake in medical notes could be fatal.
“ ’Oo are they?” he asked, taking the paper from her and scowling at it.
“All the people who say they saw something, or somebody,” she replied. “As clearly as I recall.”
He searched her face. “You think they’re lying?”
“Not necessarily. But they might have been saying what they thought people wanted to hear. Have you ever seen something happen, and then asked three different people what it was?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, understanding bright in his face. “They all remember it different. You reckon that’s what ’appened ’ere?”
“Maybe. But they’ve said it so many times now that they’re remembering what they said, not what they saw. We need to know what evidence is there that’s not about faces and memories. Or at least is not from people who’ve already testified; they will feel that they can’t afford to go back on what they said now, because they’ll look stupid, and everyone will know. And, of course, they could be charged with perjury—lying in court when you’ve sworn to tell the truth.”
“You mean we need to speak to the people what isn’t noticed, like?”
“People who aren’t noticed,” she corrected automatically.
“Them too,” he grinned. “I can find out. An’ before you tell me, I’ll be careful. I know people who the police don’t. Even the River Police.”
She didn’t have the heart to tell him it should have been “whom.”
“Thank you. And be careful! Whoever really did it could still be out there.” Now she had misgivings about including Scuff in the hunt. Hurt feelings were much easier to deal with than if Scuff should be physically harmed. “People who will blow up a boat with two hundred men and women on it won’t think twice about drowning one inquisitive boy!” she said sharply.
He winced. “I know,” he answered almost under his breath. “Or one woman either. Is that going to stop you?”
“It’s going to make me very careful indeed,” she replied.
He looked at her absolutely levelly. “Good. I’ll tell Monk that, if he asks me.”
She would dearly like to have clipped his ears for impertinence, but that would keep for another time. “I’m going to the clinic,” she told him. “To see what help I can get from Squeaky Robinson, and anyone else.”
Hester arrived at the clinic to find it very pleasantly free of urgencies. Perhaps the summer weather had helped. There were the usual slight injuries, bruises, dislocations, a cut or stab, but none of them life-threatening. Nor were there any of the chronic diseases of colder seasons: no pneumonia, bronchitis, or pleurisy.
“Morning,” Squeaky said cheerfully as she came into his office, which was lined with bookshelves and locked cupboards. There were engravings on the wall that Squeaky said were worthless, and she knew were very good indeed. As usual he had the ledgers open and spread out across the table, and the top off the inkwell. It made him look busy, should Claudine come in and ask him to do anything that he did not want to—something Claudine knew perfectly well. “We need money,” he added.
“I know,” Hester replied, ignoring the subject. She knew from Claudine that the situation was far from desperate.
“You haven’t been here for days,” Squeaky complained. “How do you know?”
“We always need money,” she answered with a smile, pulling out the chair opposite the desk and sitting down. “Is this a sudden crisis, or just the usual state of affairs?”
